In the middle of the southern hemisphere’s summer, an old fishing village in Uruguay that is now an exclusive and luxurious seaside resort becomes a magnet for collectors and millionaires from the region, as well as from Europe and the U.S. Este Arte—a boutique-sized contemporary art fair—is the primary draw, punching above its weight class with just a handful of galleries. The typical roster includes galleries from Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Brazil that have participated in fairs such as Art Basel and Frieze, plus international galleries like Galerie Jocelyn Wolff from Paris that are looking to capitalize on a booming market.

“This is a contemporary art fair that was created primarily with the intention of bringing the Uruguayan art scene to the forefront, so first we had to create a market that practically did not exist,” Laura Bardier, director of the fair, told Observer. “This year, on the first day, all the galleries recouped the cost of their booths, which are 20 square meters and cost $10,000 each. Some even sold their entire stand and had to rehang their works on the preview day.”

A Uruguayan living in New York, Bardier said the inspiration to create the fair, now in its 12th edition, came after working closely with collector and philanthropist Estrellita Brodsky. She persuaded the Museum of Modern Art in New York to create a department dedicated to Latin American art in the mid-2000s—a move that was later replicated by Tate Modern in London and The Met. With Brodsky in her court, Bardier sought to collaborate in raising the profile and professionalization of her country’s art.

Today, Este Arte is one of the first fairs on the Latin American calendar and kicks off a year of art weeks and fairs that continues with ZONAMACO in Mexico in February and April’s SP-Arte in Brazil. German collector Robert Müller-Grünow lives in Cologne and has been attending the fair for five years as a way to add to a collection dedicated to young Latin American artists that he started in the early 1990s. “The difficult part is not buying the works but shipping them to Germany,” he told Observer. He’d just acquired a piece by Francisca Maya (1985), who pays homage to the Uruguayan geometric tradition, from Black Gallery.

The fair is held in the Pavilion Vik, a sober space located a few meters from the sea, opposite La Susana, one of the most exclusive beach clubs on this coast. On the open-air terrace, between glasses of sparkling wine, it is possible to see the sunset over the sea. “I am not interested in importing external models or replicating formulas, even if they are successful in other contexts. I am interested in working from the specific conditions of the region: its rhythm, its relationship with the public, its institutional tradition and its scale,” Bardier reflected.

With three locations in São Paulo and a fourth under construction, Almeida & Dale gallery presented a solo show by Brazilian artist Vanderlei Lopes: nine sculptures evoking liquids and everyday objects, with mirrored surfaces that intensify the illusion of water, created specifically for the fair and in dialogue with the coastal landscape. Prices range from $10,000 to $38,000. “In contrast to larger global fairs, where volume often prevails, Este Arte favors deeper curatorial and commercial relationships,” Hena Lee, director of the gallery, told Observer. “It offers a focused context that has become increasingly relevant for us, as the fair continues to attract a growing number of engaged collectors.”

Jocelyn Wolff gallery is a regular presence at major European fairs and has expanded into Asia in recent years with a space in Seoul. This was the gallery’s first time coming to Este Arte, according to director Inés Huergo; works by Diego Bianchi were priced between $15,000 and $24,000. “We found it especially interesting as a place that brings together people from many parts of Latin America,” she said.

The fair is one of the central events of an art week that offers unprecedented activity in a region where only 400 people live year-round. However, Este Arte is not the only player positioning José Ignacio as a seasonal hub for Latin American art. The Focus International Photography Festival, for example, held its third edition January 6-11. Less a commercial project than an initiative dedicated to promoting photography as an artistic discipline, it mounted free exhibitions in public and private spaces throughout the town, including art galleries, the central square and the José Ignacio Lighthouse. Produced by Fola and Arte x Arte, its mission is “to promote the growth of photography within the art scene,” director Gastón Deleau, a cultural promoter who created the first museum in Argentina dedicated exclusively to photography, told Observer.

Among the highlights of this edition, which was curated by Nicolás Janowski, were historical images of Frida Kahlo taken at her home in Coyoacán by Colombian photographer Leo Matiz, as well as an exhibition by Gaspar Gasparian (a key figure in Brazil) and an exhibition by Colombian artist Oscar Muñoz, curated by José Roca, Chief Curator of Latin American and Diasporic Art at the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.

One of the festival venues is Casa Neptuna, home to the Fundación Ama Amoedo, which also operates as an artist residency and has become a key platform for conversations around contemporary art in José Ignacio. It was there that Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, curator of the 2025 Bienal de São Paulo, was invited to give a public lecture, sharing insights into his curatorial approach to the biennial. Many of the collectors who attended the fair were present. “My humanity is contingent on your humanity and your humanity on mine. If I’m not human, you’re not human. It doesn’t matter how much money you have,” he said, summing up the spirit of the biennial, which concluded on January 11.

Another highlight of the art week was an exhibition by Mexican artist Ana Segovia, who is presenting a solo show at the Cervieri Monsuárez Foundation, curated by Magalí Arriola. “The Office of Inter-American Affairs Presents: Uruguay” brings together a series of recent paintings inspired by short documentaries produced in the U.S. during the 1940s and 1950s, within the framework of the so-called “Good Neighbor Policy,” which offered a stereotypical view of Latin America. Segovia—who will have a solo show in September at Kurimanzutto New York—reinterprets cinematic scenes linked to masculinity in dialogue with the archetypal figure of the gaucho.

Argentine collector and patron Ama Amoedo sees José Ignacio increasingly consolidating itself as a meeting point for Latin American contemporary art—no longer just a summer refuge for collectors but a laboratory where Latin America’s contemporary art scene tests its visibility and market strength.

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In a world marked by financial crises, geopolitical instability and ecological disasters, the 36th Bienal de São Paulo—the second oldest art biennial in the world—clings to the idea that it is too late to be pessimistic. On view through January 11, 2026, at the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion in Ibirapuera Park, it brings together works by more than 120 artists under the title “Nem todo viandante anda estradas / Da humanidade como prática” (“Not All Travellers Walk Roads / Of Humanity as Practice”).

Curated by Cameroonian Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, with a conceptual team that included Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz, Thiago de Paula Souza, Keyna Eleison and Henriette Gallus, the exhibition is structured in six thematic chapters inspired by a verse by Afro-Brazilian poet Conceição Evaristo. The reference is no coincidence, given the numerous artists who recover the ties between Brazil and the Afro-Atlantic diaspora, although the proposal extends to all participants, blurring geographical and political divisions.

For this edition, the curatorial group set out to abandon the logic of traditional categories such as the nation-state and instead conceive the selection of artists as migratory bird routes. From the red-tailed hawk crossing the Americas to the Arctic tern connecting the poles, birds serve as metaphors for cultural movements that overflow borders. “Like them, we carry memories, languages and experiences,” Ndikung explained at the press conference, describing the methodology.

The pavilion’s façade welcomes visitors with a monumental installation by Theresah Ankomah (Accra, Ghana), made of braided strips of different sizes and colors. Like a community curtain, it completely covers the modernist building designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Inside, the curatorial decision was to build as little as possible, privileging natural light and Niemeyer’s original structures. “The migratory routes of birds freed us from thinking in terms of countries and invited us to explore unexpected connections,” co-curator Anna Roberta Goetz told Observer.

That gesture is also reflected in the materials chosen by many of the artists: plastic bottle caps, computer keyboards, matchboxes, handkerchiefs or scrunchies. “Objects reveal trade routes, ecologies and new forms of colonialism,” Goetz emphasized. An example is the work of Brazilian artist Moisés Patrício, a practitioner of Candomblé, who wraps liturgical objects in hundreds of colorful hair ties. In his Brasilidades series, the piece denounces the symbolic erasure of Black culture from public space and proposes reparation through ancestral knowledge.

On the ground floor, the tour opens with the disturbing garden by Precious Okoyomon (a queer artist of Nigerian origin). Sun of Consciousness. God Blow Thru Me – Love Break Me (2025) is a living landscape of medicinal plants, sugarcane, aromas, sounds and uneven paths, forcing a slower pace and an openness to other rhythms of life. Nearby, Brazilian artist Nádia Taquary presents “Ìrókó: A árvore cósmica,” dedicated to the orisha Ìrókó, who embodies time and ancestry. Bronze female figures stand beside a sacred tree crowned with a white flag, evoking the terreiros of Afro-Brazilian religions.

Wolfgang Tillmans, one of the most celebrated names in this edition, presents a new video installation weaving together fragments of the everyday—mud clinging to a boot, folders in a cabinet, fallen leaves—with a layered soundscape of urban noise, birdsong and electronic beats. The work builds an architecture of images and sounds that unsettles how we consume and share the visual in the digital age.

From Zimbabwe, Moffat Takadiwa transforms post-consumer waste into sculptural textiles critiquing consumerism, racism and environmental collapse. For São Paulo, he created a monumental “textile ark” of discarded plastics and metals, enveloping viewers in a portal to a future rooted in Ubuntu, the African philosophy of redistribution, cooperation and interdependence. Totemic, microorganism-like forms reclaim cast-off materials as symbols of resistance and renewal.

Conceived as a horizontal network of times and geographies, the Bienal insists that the practice of humanity is indispensable in a world marked by migration and inequality. “To be human is to embrace compassion, generosity, resilience and the hospitality of the guest house,” Ndikung said, quoting the Persian poet Rumi.

As visitors leave the Bienal, Chinese artist Song Dong’s Borrow Light (2025) becomes the inevitable selfie spot: a mirrored room, inspired by fairground attractions, that multiplies reflections into infinity. Yet beyond the spectacle, the work gestures toward limitless human connections, reminding us that every encounter is also an act of community. In this playful gesture, visitors find themselves woven into the network of relationships that the Bienal de São Paulo unfolds from beginning to end.

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On its way to two decades of life, Art Dubai celebrated its 18th edition from April 18 to 20 at the Madinat Jumeirah complex, an opulent citadel with orientalist airs that looks like something out of One Thousand and One Nights. Outside, temperatures hovered near 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), but inside the fair, gallerists and visitors filled the aisles with enthusiasm.

With more than 100 galleries—primarily from Asia, Africa and the Middle East but also from Europe and the United States—the fair reaffirmed its global character with a firm commitment to representing the Global South and offering an alternative to traditional circuits. “Here you can see what no other fair in the West can,” summed up artistic director Pablo del Val.

The postcard was typical: women in black abayas and men in white kandoras shared space with Western suits, luxury handbags, champagne glasses and a babel of languages, especially during the VIP days, April 16 and 17.

Sales remained strong across the five days of the fair, including Sunday evening ahead of closing. Experimenter Gallery reported its best opening day in nearly 20 years, selling more than 80 percent of its presentation to private and institutional collections. Brandstrup (Oslo), participating for the first time, placed works by Diana al-Hadid for more than $300,000. Richard Saltoun Gallery (London/Rome/New York) sold out a series by Samira Abbassy and placed multiple works by Greta Schödl, while Zawyeh Gallery (Dubai/Ramallah) sold pieces by Nabil Anani ranging from $100,000 to $650,000. 

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The big draw was Mother Earth by Turkish collective OUCHHH Studio—an artificially intelligent data sculpture with intercontinental projection—acquired by a collector who had traveled to Dubai specifically to see it. Also notable was the strong presence of local galleries such as Efie Gallery, evidence of the steady growth and consolidation of the art scene in Dubai.

“There is an energy here, a momentum, that is gaining more and more attention. It’s not like any other fair,” said Benedetta Ghione, executive director of Art Dubai. In its 18th edition, the event reaffirmed its role as a platform for urgent narratives and diverse voices from the Global South. “What you see at the stands is a reflection of this moment,” said del Val. “A reading of what is happening in the world: the displacements, the migrations, the causes that provoke them—from political conflicts to climate change. But also, a powerful preservation of the culture and identity of each region.”

Of the more than 100 presentations, these five booths stood out.

Comptoir des Mines Galerie, Marrakech

Participating for the fifth consecutive year, Comptoir des Mines brought a solid selection of modern and contemporary Moroccan artists who explore artivism as an aesthetic and political language. Works by post-war icon Mohammed Kacimi—deeply influenced by the sea, the desert and global conflict—coexisted with pieces by Mustapha Akrim, Khadija Jayi, Fatiha Zemmouri and Mohamed Arejdal, the latter with sales to collectors from Bahrain, Beirut, Rabat and Marrakech. With prices ranging from $20,000 to $26,000, the booth centered around a poetic question: how can poetry be reinvented in a world overshadowed by desolation?

BREAKFAST, Ace Art Advisory, New York

BREAKFAST—a key figure in digital and kinetic art—presented a solo booth with limited-edition works, including pieces from the Warming Seas series, which translates oceanic data into dynamic visualizations, and Interwoven Existence, an installation of more than 6,000 kinetic discs previously shown at the 2024 Venice Biennale. His monumental sculpture Carbon Wake welcomed visitors at the entrance to the Digital section. The booth attracted Dubai-based collectors, who purchased several kinetic pieces ranging from $30,000 to $80,000—reaffirming interest in his innovative crossover between art, data and environmental awareness.

Galería RGR, Mexico City

In its first showing at Art Dubai, RGR offered a thoughtful curatorship linking Latin American geometric abstraction with contemporary practices inflected by the symbolic, the spiritual and the political. Historical works by artists Carlos Cruz-Diez, Jesús Rafael Soto and Julio Le Parc entered into dialogue with recent pieces by Jeppe Hein, Francisco Muñoz and Magali Lara. Standouts included Hein’s mirrored sculpture, a Cromointerferencia by Cruz-Diez that shifts viewers’ perception of color in real time and Patrick Hamilton’s Atacama collages, which merge landscape and historical memory. 

Pinksummer, Genoa

In the “Bawwaba” section—Arabic for “gateway” and dedicated to solo presentations from the Global South—Italian gallery Pinksummer presented a mesmerizing installation by Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno. Known for his transdisciplinary approach that fuses science, art and ecology, Saraceno showed a piece from his Foam series: suspended sculptures made of colored Plexiglas that simulate bubbles floating in a shaken glass. With transparent, geometric forms—some dodecahedral, some irregular—the works create an optical experience that evokes shifting constellations or cellular patterns.

Dastan Gallery, Tehran

Returning for its 11th participation, Dastan brought together a multigenerational presentation of contemporary Iranian artists. Pooya Aryanpour’s untitled sculpture ($160,000)—a large-scale, fuchsia piece with a fragmented surface that evokes both organic forms and architectural structures—stood out for its reflection on spirituality in the contemporary era. Works by Reza Aramesh, Taher Asad-Bakhtiari and Farrokh Mahdavi rounded out the booth, which celebrated both aesthetic richness and conceptual depth. Prices ranged from $700 to $160,000.